Re: [tied] Vampire [was: Pagan, heathen ...]

25-08-03 11:45, Abdullah Konushevci wrote:

> I guess that in the word <heath> should have impact <heat>, which, I
> am afraid, was motivation of Alb. <vapë> 'heat' from PIE root *wap-
> 'evil, bad' (<evil> is derived from suffixed zero-grade form of this
> root *up-elo (see Watkins, wap-).
> Nasalized form of this root is *wamp-, which could derives suffixed
> form <vampir> 'devil', common word in East Europe and South Europe.
> It's quite interesting that this word is used in connection with
> _evil_: <vapë e dreqit> 'evil's heat'. There are in Albanian, I
> guess, folk etymology of this word <dhampirës> 'sucking teeth', but I
> beleive that have much to deal much more with regular alternation v-
> /th-.
> Any suggestions?

In view of this amassment of arbitrary suggestions (an ad hoc infix plus
an ad hoc suffix), I'd say that the orthodox etymology of <vampire>
(Slavic *[v]o~pyrI) is preferable. It leaves nothing unexplained and has
the advantage of relating the Slavic words for 'vampire' and 'bat' to
each other.

See

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/14259
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/14263

The interpretation I personally prefer is 'that which flies in', since
'in' is the normal meaning of Slavic *(v)o~ (the compositional form of
the preposition/preverb *vUn-) in nouns.

Why gloss <vampire> as 'devil'? A vampire is a vampire.

Piotr